For spraying a fluid with a typical air atomizing spray device, commonly referred to as "conventional air spray", or "high volume low pressure (HVLP) air spray," a fluid nozzle is attached to the device for atomizing the fluid with air that is also conveyed through the fluid nozzle. The tip of the fluid nozzle where the fluid exits the fluid nozzle is subject to more wear than the remainder of the fluid nozzle. In particular, this tip is subject to abrasive wear from the fluid being urged through a reduced size orifice when exiting the tip, and mechanical wear from a seating action with an internal spray device flow regulating needle. Accordingly, it is not uncommon for such a fluid nozzle to be deemed unusable when the nozzle tip interior deteriorates sufficiently so that a flow regulating needle of the spraying device that is designed to seal the nozzle tip and thereby prevent the fluid from exiting cannot sealingly mate with the interior of the nozzle tip due to the wear thereof. This circumstance is unfortunate due to the fact that such nozzle tips have relatively simple configurations in comparison to the remainder of the fluid nozzle. Said differently, the remainder of the fluid nozzle is substantially more expensive to manufacture in that it must precisely fit with the spray device both for receiving the fluid to be sprayed and for receiving pressurized air through a plurality of air passageways machined through the fluid nozzle. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a fluid nozzle wherein the fluid nozzle tip is composed at least partially of a more abrasive resistant material so that the useful life of the fluid nozzle is extended. Moreover, since enhanced abrasive resistant materials increase fluid nozzle manufacturing costs, it would also be advantageous to use such abrasion resistant materials only on the nozzle tip rather than the entire fluid nozzle.
Additionally, it is not uncommon for differently configured fluid nozzles to be used to thereby account for different viscosities and flow characteristics of fluids to be sprayed. Moreover, such different configurations are substantially only needed in the nozzle tip portion of the fluid nozzle. Thus, it would be also advantageous to have a fluid nozzle for air atomizing spraying, wherein the nozzle tip is able to be interchanged with nozzle tips having a different configuration such as a different sized fluid exit orifice and/or a nozzle tip having a different length or diameter extending outwardly from a main body of the fluid nozzle.
The above mentioned desired advantages are provided by the novel fluid nozzle described in the sections herein below.